The heart of Grace - "I am willing, I am able"

GRACE de Bruin has always wanted to dedicate her life to helping others, and now she is heading to Uganda with the opportunity to fulfil her dream.

"I'm going to Uganda for 17 days to help with African Hearts," she said.

"We're taking a bunch of kids who have just finished their HSC in Queensland, instead of them doing their schoolies, they're coming to help with the slum boys in Uganda.

"Which I think will be really amazing for them," she said.

This isn't the Maclean resident's first time doing aid work, in 2014 she set off to South Africa to help build a kitchen and play equipment for the creche in the villages she visited.

"This time, I'll be doing first aid and medical work," she said.

Grace, 21, is a nursing student at the University of New England in Armidale and her studies are allowing her to help more people in different ways.

"I would like to finish my RNs and do midwifery and then do a Bachelor of Education and teach nursing and midwifery in Africa so they are sustainable themselves and not relying on other people," she said.

"I'm a Christian, and I've always had a yearning to go out and help people. People actually have to start making a change instead of just talking about it and that's something that I firmly believe in."

Grace added that aid work was very rewarding, but that wasn't the reason why she loved helping people.

"If we only focus on the rewards then we don't want to help if we don't get the reward," she said. "I think there is a need for help and I am able and I am willing."

This trip, Grace will be helping recent high school graduates.

Grace flies out of Brisbane today with African Hearts, an organisation who aim to help children in Uganda.